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PSPs start around 30 for a human. If you use them up on casting a single force-bolt spell or whatever that's it, no more PSPs and no more force-bolts until you recharge yourself by standing on a leyline, using a pyramid (which generates PSPs) or sacrificing orphans. Also, at no point did the books ever define just how many PSPs you can "fill the tank" with when you start sucking off pyramids (yeah I'm gonna go with that terminology) so it's up to the GM. Correct so far?

Psychics, meanwhile, run on ISPs. ISPs start a little higher, but cannot be recharged. Ergo you throw two force bolts, and then you're out of ISPs forever. At this point your class is slightly less effective than a vagabond who can just cook beans.

I'm quite sure this is wrong, but that's what it sounded like while reading the write-ups. Where did I miss a cue?

or maybe like, if you ate something? I remember for some reason it was funny that a buddy's ley line walker was fat, which might've been because he was eating all the time to get magic points back

japan was one of the funniest books because on the one hand, it seemed like they kind of went out of their way to de-power things and include some opportunities for more SDC oriented play, but then toward the end carella starts drawing robot dragons and it turns into an orgy of tail mounted lasers and vibrating claws

Eat it You Nasty Pig. on May 2011

the youngsters who were programmed to continue fucking up woke up one night
digging Paul Revere and Nat Turner as the good guys

I'm quite sure this is wrong, but that's what it sounded like while reading the write-ups. Where did I miss a cue?

Both recharge naturally. I don't have my books with me at work and can't recall the exact numbers off hand, but I don't recall our magic users needing too much extra downtime, and I know ISP worked out to being a reasonably steady rate per hour, I believe based on their level of power (Masters recharged faster than Minors, possibly Majors as well). ... I want to say 12 per hour, but again, I haven't played Rifts in something approaching a decade here, so I could be misremembering, or they might've changed the rules in one of the updates since then.

I believe the base regeneration rate for PPE (Magic) and ISP (Psionics) is 5 per hour, or 10 per hour of meditation. Some classes differ from this, as they are either more attuned or less attuned to mystical forces. There is no absolute maximum PPE you can hold at one time, however, extra PPE does begin to seep out of characters in relation to the character's P.E. (Physical Endurance or Constitution) if I'm not mistaken. (PE of 16 means you can hold the extra PPE for 16 minutes before it seeps into the atmosphere)

There's something primal about fire. An almost supernatural destructive force that, when tamed, paved the way for modern civilization. Mankind has a long and tumultuous history with flame. It seems oddly suiting that in what are likely to be the last days of man, we have a select few individuals who can take direct, mental control of fire.

It's kind of like that.

The first of our lineup of "Master Psionics", Bursters are natural pyrokineticists on a rather impressive scale. When they push themselves, they're capable of burning away mega damage armors and basically just making life hell for anyone who isn't immune to having their eyeballs boil.

Like most Master psionics, Bursters get a good number of Inner Strength Points, allowing them to keep up their pyrotechnics show quite a while before they run dry. Unlike most other Master psionics, though, the Burster doesn't get a lot of extra powers to play with. So it's basically burn or bust, they're not going to be putting the psychic whammy on anyone or lifting things with their mind. Their abilities are basically limited to lighting things on fire and then manipulating that fire.

Mario: Master Psionic

Their abilities;

1. Impervious to Fire/Heat: Literal invulnterability to fire. Normal fires do no damage, mega-damage plasma does 1/10 of it's normal. Electricity, including Ion weapons and lightning bolts, do half. Does nothing against laser weapons or rail guns, but it's kind of nice to be able to walk right up to a fire dragon and smack him in the gob. This ability was the genesis of one of the most ridiculous character concepts in Rifts, and given the source material that's saying something. We'll be talking about this guy later.

2. Extinguish Fires: 4 I.s.P. to put out every fire in 100+ feet. Great way to make yourself useful to a frontier community; play fireman.

3. Flame Burst: Flame On! Surround yourself in a corona of flame that adds 6d6 damage to your melee attacks, or lets you inflict M.D. with flaming punches at a ley line. This was pretty badass when the game first came out, since nobody else was doing M.D. unarmed under any circumstances. Well, besides Dragons and the occasional Borg.

4. Fire Bolt: "A fiery energy bolt can be hurled or fired from the hands, even if an artificial appendage, or forehead." A much more efficient way of doing Mega Damage, at 4 I.S.P. for a ranged 2d6. Kind of the Burster's go-to move.

5. Fire Eruption: Awesome in theory, jankity in execution. Welcome to Rifts, I guess. Summon a column or wall of Mega Damage flame down on your enemies, assuming you can roll under 48 on a percentile. No attack roll, just a skill check, and if you fail it the thing ends up 2d6 yards off target and basically useless. Woo.

6. Sense Fire: Because smelling smoke is passe.

7. Super Fuel Fire: A fire in range flares to 10 times it's original size. In case the fireman gig doesn't work out, you can go into extortion instead.

Rifts Rule #27: Anything you can do, a mutant cat can do better.

As far as actual, non-column-of-flame skills go, Bursters are kind of limited. It's this way with most of the psychic classes. The rationalization goes that they spent so much of their youths mastering their psychic abilities that they didn't have a lot left over for calculus or cultural enrichment. Except the Dog Boys, they were just trained to fetch and roll over. I don't think I've ever seen a Burster with less than Hand to Hand: Expert and Boxing, because the more of those sweet, sweet attacks per melee you can scrounge up the more people you can burn in any given 15 second period. Bursters ARE notable in that they're one of a limited number of classes to have unfettered access to the Wilderness skills, all both of them.

In case you haven't noticed, Bursters kind of have a "look."

I promised earlier that I'd talk about the ridiculously broken Burster build, so here goes. Remember, this guy is the king of cheese in a setting where the air is 65% Gouda.

Like I said, it starts with the Impervious to Fire ability. Now, you're probably thinking, that's a nice trick but it's a 100% defensive power, and there's really nothing broken about being impossible to set on fire. UNLESS, of course, that happens to be the only way to kill you.

Conversion Book 1 introduced (or rather, converted) a race from the Palladium Fantasy setting called the Scarecrow. The Scarecrow's claim to fame, besides being demonic psychopaths that are functionally immortal, is their ability to reassemble themselves even after they've been "killed". The only way to put them down for good is with, you guessed it, fire. In fact, fire is basically the only way to hurt them at all. They're impervious to normal weapons, lasers, basically all typical MD attacks, psionics, magic, etc. If you want to kill a scarecrow, and believe me if you meet one you want to kill it, you're going to have to burn it. So if you make one impossible to burn, it literally cannot die. Think Jason if he could set you on fire with his mind.

Zappers: In case fire isn't hardcore enough for you.

That's about all for today. Hopefully the next update will be up a little faster than this one was.

Next Time;

One of my favorite classes, straight up. And something truly iconic to Rifts.

There was a spell combo in 3rd edition that let you take all damage (except fire and acid) as stun, another spell that made you immune to stun, and a spell that made you immune to elemental (fire and acid) damage.

Usually had it stacked up on a gnome for the comedic effect of an unkillable little kneebiter.

There was a spell combo in 3rd edition that let you take all damage (except fire and acid) as stun, another spell that made you immune to stun, and a spell that made you immune to elemental (fire and acid) damage.

Usually had it stacked up on a gnome for the comedic effect of an unkillable little kneebiter.

There was a spell combo in 3rd edition that let you take all damage (except fire and acid) as stun, another spell that made you immune to stun, and a spell that made you immune to elemental (fire and acid) damage.

Usually had it stacked up on a gnome for the comedic effect of an unkillable little kneebiter.

And you could make a Kobold omnipotent.

And people call Rifts ridiculous. At least you see it coming with Palladium games. They basically label the pants-on-head crazy options.

I always thought wormwood was the best environment for a rifts campaign, even if the PCs were from earth or wherever. A lot of the ridiculous stuff was... at least somewhat less ridiculous in the wormwood setting

Eat it You Nasty Pig. on May 2011

the youngsters who were programmed to continue fucking up woke up one night
digging Paul Revere and Nat Turner as the good guys

Scarecrow burster actually is a pretty awesome character concept, IMO. Scarecrows are hella flavorful and terrifying, bursters aren't strong enough damage wise to be a big danger to like, gods and such, and they don't have the skills to become truly terrifying. As such a scarecrow/burster is going to end up sort of like Vile to any other villains (or PCs) Sigma. He really wants to change the world by any means necessary, but he's going to get his ass kicked by megaman or zero whenever they show up.

Could be useful as a good recurring enemy, with the end goal being at least trapping it (a coffin impervious to fire), then followers let it out, so you have to stick it somewhere hard to come back from (tossed in a volcano that does no damage but sends it surging through lava flows for years, or buried in a mountain that'd take years to burn its way free from?

Then it gets too annoying to keep dealing with and the characters have to find some way to kill it permanently. Yes, yes, impervious to all damage aside, it'd either take some outside the box thinking or simply using the mighty GM powers to say that rare/difficult to obtain/massive quest chain requiring Item Of Renown can kill the damned thing.

A batshit idea with some potential, that's for sure. Hell, Bursters being kinda crappy for damage even helps place him as a threat to an early party (with restrictions on their gear of course) and then add new abilities/followers/gear/etc to season as the levels and months go by.

Let's do a little thought experiment. First, let's assume that your species has elevated itself to apex status via its overdeveloped brain, which allowed you and all of your ancestorst to overcome the fact that you are/were in fact squishy bags of soft flesh that require/required various sorts of tools to even stand a chance against virtually anything else on the planet that was composed of more than 4 cells. Second let's assume that, having reached said apex status, there really wasn't much evolutionary impetus to develop fangs or claws or protective head-plates or whatever. Third, let's assume the world ends.

Your cities are burned down or looted by hungry extradimensional beings, food is almost impossible to find and your species is on the brink of extinction. Where's your grey matter god now, huh brainiac?

This guy probably ate him.

Now skip forward several hundred years. Somehow, your species has managed to remain at least partially uneaten. You've adapted, some more successfully than others, to no longer being the apex species on your own planet. In a lot of cases, you're even a force to be feared, at least until one of the true powerhouses shows up to slap you down.

But some of you have gone one step further than adapting to this fearsome new world; you're evolving. Becoming something more, or less, than human. Something else.

Something bald.

And I'm not talking about that weak sauce psionics stuff. That's not mutation, that's just taking advantage of ambient abilities that were already there before the demonpocalypse. Even Bursters and Mind Melters are just basically baseline humans with a talent for melting things, not a true subspecies.

They also lack GWAR-style helmetry.

No, if you want true mutation, an actual subspecies of humans that is perfectly adapted to their new post-apocalyptic environment, you've got to go with the psi stalker.

Psi-Stalkers are clearly hairless, human-looking mutants who often paint or tattoo paterns and insignias on their face and body, sometimes file their teeth to points, and hwo possiess an inate supernatural ability [to sense supernatural creatures and magic].

Psi-Stalkers were once human, but over the centuries have mutated and evolved into humans with unusual powers that have helped them survive in the wilderness and battle supernatural forces. In addition, they are at home in the wilderness in ways that ordinary humas can never be. Psi-Stalkers also exhibit a primordial glee in combat and a sort of natural instinct to oppose and battle all things magical and supernatural.

Psi-Stalkers developed in the early decades of the two-hundred year long dark age that followed the fall of mankind. Evolution in a couple of generations. [STRIKE]That's not how these things work goddammit[/STRIKE] obviously a wizard did it. Or at least buttloads of magical energy did it, because there really weren't a whole lot of wizards back then. Most people were too busy trying to avoid being eaten to form coherent theories of magic, after all.

Magic? We don't need no stinking magic.

This new race of psi-stalkers are, in essence, humans tweaked to hunt supernatural creatures instead of the other way around. Here's what they get, boiled way down;

1. Detect Magic & Psionics: Constant and permanent. Works out to a range of 50 feet for psychics, creatures of magic and magic users who aren't actively doing anything, or 600 feet for anything that is actively using magic or psionics. Supernatural creatures can be sensed and tracked even further out. This ability can also be used to track creatures of magic, which is particularly useful in light of;

They're also pretty good at detecting sleazeballs.

2. Feed On Psychic Energy: Psi-Stalkers don't need to eat much at all ("1 lb of meat a week and 8 ounces of water"), but they do have to consume 50 P.P.E. per week to stave off psychic starvation. For the vast majority of psi-stalkers, this means hunting and killing psychics, creatures of magic or mages. In order to feed, they either have to kill the target (doubling its P.P.E., so this is the preferred method) or capture and feed on them, completely draining them off all magical energy. Even with the "humane" option, the target is drained of absolutely all psychic and magical energy.

3. Sensitive Psychics: They get basically the entire list of Sensitive psionic powers. 8 in total. It's really hard to hide anything from a Psi-Stalker.

4. Super Predator: A stack of attribute bonuses (M.E., P.E., Spd) and an extra attack per melee make this a great species for anyone who just wants to be straight up better than a human.

5. Animal Affinity: Dogs don't bark at psi-stalkers, natural predators don't hunt them (cougars and such, dragons and other supernaturals aren't included) horses don't spook, etc. There are quite a few psi-stalker operated ranches out there that take advantage of this.

In later books, they would also get the ability to transform themselves into Mega Damage creatures when they went hand-to-hand against a supernatural baddy like a dragon or vampire. In a wonderful bout of non-retconning, Seimbieda and company would claim that it had always been this way, but the psi-stalker community was incredibly good at keeping this ability a secret and that's why it was left out of the original rule book.

As soon as that stake goes in, the guy hammering it becomes less badass.

Skills for Psi-Stalkers are kind of interesting. There are two completely separate classes for them in the main book; Coalition/Civilized and Wild. The Coalition version is for the ones that lead the Dog Packs (we'll be covering those in the future) or the psi-stalkers that have integrated with the rest of society to the point where they can sell their services or trade them for room and board.

The term "civilized" being relative, obviously.

Wild Psi-Stalkers are much more... wild. Less access to technical skills, but they are just fine with the tracking, sneaking and stabbing aspects of the character type. The wild ones also get access to Assassin Hand to Hand without being evil, which while probably typo is unique in all of Riftdom.

It's good to have friends.

Of course, members of this race can also hold other classes assuming your GM doesn't smack you across the mouth for powergaming. They even got their own Juicer variant with +3 attacks per melee and ISP activated mega damage capacity.

In later books, they would also get the ability to transform themselves into Mega Damage creatures when they went hand-to-hand against a supernatural baddy like a dragon or vampire. In a wonderful bout of non-retconning, Seimbieda and company would claim that it had always been this way, but the psi-stalker community was incredibly good at keeping this ability a secret and that's why it was left out of the original rule book.